Postgame notes: "He expects perfection"

The question was this: Has it gotten to the point that there's a different feeling around the Yankees when Masahiro Tanaka is pitching?

Derek Jeter's answer was this: “I don’t know if you can really say, 'gotten to the point.' It’s pretty much that way since the season started. I think we got to that point a long time ago. But I know what you’re saying. You look forward to him on the mound. He works quick. He throws strikes. He’s pretty much dominated since he got here.”

Remember this offseason when Brian Cashman tried to control expectations by labeling Tanaka a No. 3 starter? Well, I'd say the expectations game is over at this point. Tanaka's an ace, and no one expects more than Tanaka himself. That's why he clapped his way off the field after getting that key double play in the eighth inning -- "He knew that (he was) going to get to go back out there," Joe Girardi said. "You could see the excitement" -- and that's why he looked to the sky in disbelief after the Robinson Cano home run in the ninth.

Tanaka's come awfully close to that standard. He's 10-1 and already has two complete games. He has a 1.75 ERA on the road. He has yet to allow more than three earned runs in a start. Each start has been a quality start.

“I never really thought about (expectations) going into the season," Tanaka said. "All that I was thinking was just taking it game by game, just trying to go out there and do the best that I can each game. As a result, this is where I am, but I think a lot of that has to with how my teammates have been playing with me."

Of course Tanaka nitpicked his outing. He said too many pitches were in the middle of the plate. Of course he was mad about the home run. He very nearly had his second shutout, and a complete game really did seem to feel like nothing more than a consolation prize. But that's by Tanaka's standards. All around him, the Yankees seem to recognize just how great Tanaka has been. Maybe not perfect, but about as close to perfection as anyone has seen in a long, long time.

"We were just talking about it in the training room," Mark Teixeira said. "Just when you think he’s starting to slow down a little, the last two guys, he got a little upset, and took care of them. It was an incredible performance tonight, and we needed it. ... If he keeps this up, he’s going to have one of the greatest first years in baseball of any pitcher who’s ever played this game."

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• By the way, Teixeira has as many Safeco Field home runs as Cano. This was Cano's first home run at home this season. It was just his third home run of the season.

• Also, the Yankees are well aware that a three-run homer hasn't been their style lately. "I was joking around, like ‘What just happened?’" Teixeira said. "Because it feels like it’s been forever since we hit a home run, and had a four run lead, so it’s nice."

• Teixeira is now tied with Rafael Palmeiro for the fourth most career home runs at Safeco Field by a visiting player. He's hit 17 homers in this ballpark. He and Jeter are also tied for the fourth most Safeco hits by a visiting player with 82. Michael Young (118), Torii Hunter (87) and Garrett Anderson (82) have more. Playing in the American League West obviously helps.

• Two stolen bases for Derek Jeter, who had just one coming into this game. “Got the green light," Jeter said. "Green light, that means you go. Just because I haven’t done something doesn’t mean I can’t do it. I got the green light, I was in a good situation, so I took advantage of it.”

• Jacoby Ellsbury's hitting streak is up to 15 games and is the longest active streak in the majors. It's the sixth-longest of his career.

• Dave Robertson was getting loose in the ninth inning. Logan Morrison was going to be Tanaka's final batter regardless, Girardi said. If Tanaka put Morrison on base, Robertson was going to come in to face the tying run and try to finish off the win.

• Also, at one point Tanaka kind of bent down and looked as if he might have slipped or hurt himself in the ninth, but Tanaka seemed to not really know what anyone was talking about when asked about it. He's fine.

• Girardi said he wants to keep giving Tanaka an extra day off whenever possible, and Tanaka said having an extra day heading into this start made a difference. “Obviously I think that one day helped," he said. "Given that one day, you get some more rest time and you get a extra day to prepare for the game, so I do think that helped out tonight.”

• Here's Girardi explaining his complaint about the foul ball call in the ninth inning: "There was a situation a short time ago in Pittsburgh. You're not supposed to be able to challenge anything in front of an umpire, but the umpire in Pittsburgh was jumping out of the way of the ball. He said, my judgment might have been impeded because I was jumping out of the way of the ball. I said, 'Mark, I know were not supposed to be able to do this, but it happened in Pittsburgh. They said that if the umpires judgment, he feels its impeded, then they can make that judgment.' People are going to say the ball was even with the umpire in Pittsburgh. It wasn't. It was just in front of him. I asked Mark, and Mark is like, 'You know what, this is what we've been told.' I wasn't going to make a big fuss. I will make a call about it just because I think it's something that happens in one city, we should need to know, can it happen in other cities?"

• Final word goes to Jeter: “(Tanaka)’s been our go-to guy. Regardless of how we’ve been playing as a team, it seems like when he goes out there, he shuts teams down. He gives us a great opportunity to win. He’s a guy that we’ve been looking to pretty much all year. ... He’s got good composure. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself. You see when he’s on the mound, he make some pitches sometimes and he’s real hard on himself even when they don’t hit it. He expects to be perfect out there."